That reminds of when we saw the dial a yield grenades and the discussion of how expensive they were. Which is probably why Cindy wasn't outfitted with all these various ammos to begin with. I bet warships are only typically fitted with one kind of missile. Every time they've needed a different type of missile whoever was in charge of that, usually Kevyn, had to modify or build them to purpose. Standardization would let them pack more in and is probably cheaper than trying to fit in multiple types for all occasions. Being able to cover multiple targets is either why you have multiple ship classes available, and one reason why regular navies don't just build the biggest warships they can exclusively.

At the same type a variable yield munition, while plausible given the settings military technology, would be far too expensive for the average mercenary warship and probably even regular navies. Of course that's not really an issue for the Toughs. But as we've seen the AIs talk about they haven't gotten used to having nearly unlimited resources yet.

Though now I'm wondering how the gravy would do as a weapon in it's own right without the plasma being fired as well. Just a lance of tightly braided gravy... should play merry havoc on whatever it's turned on.

Of course that will probably also gut the station, even if it does less damage than a warhead.

At least in real-world physics, living things are a lot more vulnerable to disruption by high energy than non-living things, even if those non-living things are organic chemistry. If Kaff and company are out of range but still in the same room, then there may be some damage to the floor and ceiling near the ship, but probably not enough to cause structural damage to the building.

_________________I used to be Junius Gallio, until I messed up retyping my password in the Great Password Reset. Nice to be back.

Of course that will probably also gut the station, even if it does less damage than a warhead.

At least in real-world physics, living things are a lot more vulnerable to disruption by high energy than non-living things, even if those non-living things are organic chemistry. If Kaff and company are out of range but still in the same room, then there may be some damage to the floor and ceiling near the ship, but probably not enough to cause structural damage to the building.

I don't quite see where you are coming from. The target here is a heavy tank with shields. It's surrounded by metal walls and supports without shields. I don't see how anything that can destroy a heavy tank will fail to cause a lot of collateral damage to the station. Whether Kaff and company are out of range doesn't have anything to do with it. Except by the fact it limits Cindy's ability to use her warheads.

Of course that will probably also gut the station, even if it does less damage than a warhead.

At least in real-world physics, living things are a lot more vulnerable to disruption by high energy than non-living things, even if those non-living things are organic chemistry. If Kaff and company are out of range but still in the same room, then there may be some damage to the floor and ceiling near the ship, but probably not enough to cause structural damage to the building.

I don't quite see where you are coming from. The target here is a heavy tank with shields. It's surrounded by metal walls and supports without shields. I don't see how anything that can destroy a heavy tank will fail to cause a lot of collateral damage to the station. . . .

Armor works both ways. If the selected weapon primarily acts through the armor/shields, then most of the energy release will be inside the tank, where it will be absorbed by the "guts" of the tank, then by the armor. The better antiarmor weapons all work this way, because it's the damage done behind/through the armor and shields that matters. Only the maintenance crews will care about damage to the outside of the armor.

Many current antiarmor weapons will destroy a tank quite neatly, provided that onboard explosives don't detonate. There will be a not-untidy hole, and the inside will be completely destroyed.

Of course, this does not mean that it is safe for lightly armored personnel to be near the point of impact, but warship - or station receiving dock - decks and bulkheads are a very different matter.

I don't see how anything that can destroy a heavy tank will fail to cause a lot of collateral damage to the station.

I don't think the shields will destroy the tank--indeed, they may not affect the tank too much at all. But it's possible (depending on which way Howard goes with this) that Cindy will be able to destroy the tank inside her shields, and the shields will prevent whatever weapon is used from "splashing" all over the station (not to mention the rather fragile organic beings in the station).

Or Howard may have some entirely different rabbit to pull out of the hat.

_________________I used to be Junius Gallio, until I messed up retyping my password in the Great Password Reset. Nice to be back.

Or this may be the beginning of the end of Cindy, as The Tank Strikes Back...

In this movie we see the crew separated, Tagon must overcome personal issues while learning from a wise mentor and then rush off to save everyone, Breya gets frozen in carbonite, and Kevyn must teamup with an unlikely individual... a patron turned enemy turned ally: General Xinchub.

In The Return of the Salvo we have Schlock infiltrating a mobster's base only to be captured and dressed in a chainmail bikini...

Yes. All that setup was just to put the image of Schlock in Slave Leia's outfit into your head. I'm not sorry.